The jump in production in North Dakota and the resulting economic activity likely would push the state's population to more than 1 million residents, Helms told an audience of several hundred at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference and Expo in Bismarck. The U.S. Census Bureau's most recent count shows North Dakota's population at a record 683,930.

Billionaire Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm (CEO Continenta Resources) said "We've been saying for two years that North Dakota could be at 1.2 million barrels a day by 2015," said Hamm, chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc., an independent oil and gas company based in Oklahoma City.